


xvii. drugged

by tempestaurora



Series: it's okay, we're okay [whumpvember 2018] [17]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: And Its in The Shape of Peter Parker, Fluff, Gen, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Truth Serum, heart to heart conversations, hes also done a few things in those two weeks he decided to be reckless, mentions of drug use, peters like 17 in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 01:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16651831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/pseuds/tempestaurora
Summary: “Well,” the doctor said, “it seems you two can only tell the truth. I’ll call the team in to start working on a fix, but I do recommend you don’t leave the tower in case you say something you usually wouldn’t.”“I’ll be fine,” Peter said.The doctor raised an eyebrow but didn’t look at him. “Peter, are you Spiderman?”“Yes.” Peter blinked. “I see your point.”(Tony and Peter get truth-serumed and they take full advantage of this.)





	xvii. drugged

**Author's Note:**

> mmmmmmmmmmmmm my characterisation of peter in this one is a lil different but i dont care bc comedy

It happened on a mission.

A sonic burst loud enough to bring Peter to his knees, to make Tony in his armour stagger back against a wall. It lasted for only a second before War Machine broke through the ceiling and quickly dispatched the bad guys.

Peter had the fight in play-by-plays in his head. The entrance (kicking down the door), the fight (long and bloody) and the moment before the sonic burst, where the bad guys argued, one of them yelled that they didn’t know what the device did yet, and another said _screw it, do it anyway_.

Then it went off.

And Peter’s ears were still ringing after the police had surrounded the warehouse and Tony was helping Spiderman walk out of the building. The Channel 6 news was just pulling up to call for a statement when Peter groaned, shaking his head.

“You alright there, kid?” Tony asked, the helmet having receded into the rest of the armour.

“No,” Peter muttered, then frowned. Had he meant to say that? “My ears still hurt.”

“I’ll call the doc to meet us at the tower,” Tony replied, glancing back to see Rhodey in the War Machine get up talking to the head police officer on site. Then he looked back to the news crew approaching. “Oh crap.”

“What?”

“Katherine Everhart.”

“What about her?” Peter asked.

“We fucked once.” Peter looked up at him suddenly, a confused expression on Tony’s face. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

Katherine Everhart appeared in Peter’s peripheral, the camera rushing along behind her. “Mr Stark,” she announced, “Spiderman. Christine Everhart, can you give us a statement about what happened here today?”

Peter looked to Tony, still in his mentor’s grip. “You got her name wrong.”

“I know I got her name wrong,” Tony replied, quiet, despite Christine’s raised eyebrow. “There were bad guys, we took them down.”

“Lots of bad guys,” Peter agreed.

“Do you know what organisation they worked for?” Christine asked, following along as Tony and Peter limped to the edge of the property.

“Yes,” Tony said. “It’s-”

“Classified,” Rhodey interrupted suddenly, appearing by Tony’s side. “Nice to see you again, Miss Everhart. We’ve gotta go. You okay to fly, Spidey?”

“Oh?” Peter asked, looking to Rhodey. “I’m okay to fly though I might throw up over Brooklyn if I do.” There was a beat, then Peter added: “But I’m wearing my mask so I’ll probably just throw up in my own face.”

Rhodey and Tony both blinked at him and Christine seemed lost for words.

“We should get going,” Rhodey announced, and as soon as Tony agreed, Peter was gripped tightly by the Iron Man armour and they shot off across New York.

Peter didn’t vomit during the trip, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

 

-

 

“Still in pain?” Tony asked when they reached the medbay.

Peter yanked off his mask to sit on the bed as Tony pulled an MIT sweatshirt on. Peter shook his head. “My ears don’t hurt anymore.”

“That’s good,” the doctor said with a nod, before starting the check up.

Peter squinted at Tony’s sweatshirt. “I like it,” he said when Tony raised an eyebrow.

“I stole it from Rhodey,” Tony replied. “I don’t know where my one is.”

The doctor checked Peter’s ears and gave him a full body scan, before frowning at an area of his brain lighting up on FRIDAY’s systems.

“Have you taken any drugs recently?” the doctor asked without looking at him.

Peter shrugged. “Not recently.”

Tony raised a pointed eyebrow. “Does that mean you’ve taken drugs _not_ recently?”

Peter blinked. He knew the right answer was to say no, but- “How recently is not recently?”

“Peter.”

“Mr Stark.”

The doctor clicked at the keyboard in the background as the two of them stared off.

“Peter, have you taken recreational drugs before?”

_No. Of course not. Never in my life._ “Yes.” _Jesus Christ, Peter._ “I didn’t mean to say that.”

Tony stared at him and Peter wasn’t sure if he could work out the rage from the confusion. When he spoke, he did so incredibly slowly. “Peter Benjamin Parker. What recreational drugs have you taken?”

Peter’s mouth didn’t want to move. He didn’t want it to. He would do anything to just not open it and say: “I smoked weed a few times and then I went to a party and I think I tried E-”

“ _PETER-_ ”

“-But my metabolism meant I couldn’t really feel the effect of it so it was like I didn’t take it at all.”

The room was entirely silent. Even the doctor was staring at Peter.

“I didn’t mean to say that, either.”

Just as Tony opened his mouth to no doubt ban Peter from drugs, drinking, Spiderman and _possibly_ TV for the rest of his life, the doctor interrupted. “What do you mean, you didn’t mean to say that? What did you mean to say?”

“I meant to lie,” Peter replied with zero hesitation.

“Has this been going on for long?”

“Just since I got here, really.”

“Did anything happen on the mission to affect you in this way?”

There was a pause before Peter looked over to Tony. “That sound,” he said. “There was a noise – it took me down. Mr Stark got hit with it, too.”

The doctor nodded slowly. “And now you keep speaking without meaning to. You keep telling the truth when you don’t want to.”

“Yeah.”

The doctor turned to Tony and tilted his head. “Mr Stark, I’ve been told you’re fourteen months sober. Is that true?”

“No,” Tony replied, his eyes growing wide at how his mouth moved so fast. “I’m like three and a half weeks sober.”

“Mr Stark!”

Tony looked at Peter with his jaw clenched. Still, he said, “Being sober is really difficult. I went about four months without a drink and that’s my record.”

The room was silent, the three looking between each other as it dawned on them what was going on.

“Well,” the doctor said, moving back to his keyboard. “It seems you two can only tell the truth. I’ll call the team in to start working on a fix, but I do recommend you don’t leave the tower in case you say something you usually wouldn’t.”

“I’ll be fine,” Peter said.

The doctor raised an eyebrow but didn’t look away from the screen. “Peter, are you Spiderman?”

“Yes.” Peter blinked. “I see your point.”

 

-

 

Tony and Peter sat across from each other at the kitchen table. A few floors down, the doctors were working on the fix, while Rhodey had been sent away and Vision – well, Vision was never there anyway. Tony had given his phone to the doctor and gotten him to text May that Peter was staying the night – he really didn’t need Peter blabbing to May when she was the one person who had higher authority than Tony about whether Spiderman was allowed to come and play or not.

So they stared at each other, neither wanting to speak in case they said something they shouldn’t – but Peter should’ve recognised the look on Tony’s face, that he had a plan brewing.

“So, kid,” Tony started.

“I don’t want to do this,” Peter interrupted. “This is a bad idea.”

“You got a girlfriend?”

Peter glared. “No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“No.”

“You got a crush on anyone?”

Peter tried to hum to keep his voice at bay, but he still said, “There’s this guy in my Lit class.”

Tony raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “Is he cute?”

“Yes and I’m not doing this, Mr Stark. We should spend the rest of the day apart until the doctors can fix this.”

“What if they can’t?” Tony asked, though his voice was toying. “What if we’re stuck telling the truth forever?”

“Then you and Pepper are going to have to start going to marriage counselling,” Peter replied.

“We already go to marriage counselling and we’re not even married yet.”

There was a pause. “Really?”

Tony shrugged to look as if he was indifferent about it, but he averted his gaze all the same. “Yeah.”

“How come?”

“I fly around all day in a tin can. I worry her a lot. It’s healthy, apparently, to go to therapy for that.”

Peter hesitated, then, “You’re really not fourteen months sober?”

“No.”

“You never told me.”

“I didn’t want to worry you. Pepper and Rhodey don’t know, either, though I should probably tell them.” There was a long silence, in which the clock in the kitchen ticked every second and Peter wished they were closer to the ground so he could at least focus on the street noises. Peter understood when Tony changed the subject. “You never told me you were interested in boys.”

Peter shrugged, but he found himself staring at the table. “You never asked.”

“That’s true.”

“That’s how this works,” Peter replied. “I was planning to tell you eventually, but it’s not a big thing, you know? It’s just… part of me.”

“That’s cool. It’s part of me, too.”

Peter raised his eyes to see Tony’s face, but he didn’t need to really. Tony could only tell the truth.

“The press likes to forget that time I dated like four male models at once.”

Peter cracked a smile. So did Tony.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the drugs?” Tony asked, immediately making Peter frown.

“Because I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me. Why did you ask me that? I thought we were having a moment.”

Tony sighed, then tipped his head back with a huff. “You wanna watch a movie?”

“Sure.”

“Anything to stop talking.”

They watched the first movie that came up on Netflix – which happened to be some sappy rom com. Neither of them paid much attention, hyper aware of the other and this curse they’d been afflicted with.

At some point during the film, Peter had started leaning against Tony’s side, and Tony had swung an arm around his shoulders.

“Tired?” Tony asked.

“I’m always tired.”

“Did you sleep much last night?”

“For like an hour,” Peter replied.

On screen, the main couple were arguing. In about twenty minutes they’d get back together again, so this really meant nothing to Peter.

“The drugs really didn’t affect you?” Tony asked, making Peter roll his eyes.

“Really,” Peter said. “I got a little happy for like a minute and then it was gone.”

“Why’d you take them?”

“I wanted to have fun. Would you mind waiting to ask these questions until I’m capable of lying?”

Tony snorted. “I’d mind.” Still he quietened until the main couple were finally kissing and making up and ready to walk off into the sunset together. Then he said, “I’m not gonna be disappointed in you for that sort of stuff.”

“You’re not?”

“It’s hypocritical, I guess, considering everything I’ve done and the lying about sobriety. But, Peter – I’ll be disappointed if you think you can’t come to me about it. If you think you have to lie to me.” On screen, the main couple started singing. Up to this point, the movie hadn’t been a musical. “I want you to be able to talk to me. To trust me.”

“I do trust you.”

“You do?”

“You’re like my dad, of course I do.”

Peter’s eyes widened and he stared steadfastly at the screen and pointedly not at Tony. _You’re like my dad? Peter, stop talking._

“Would you, uh, would you mind repeating yourself there, buddy?”

“I’d mind.”

“Peter. Do you consider me a father-figure in your life?”

Peter turned to glare at Tony, who seemed particularly amused with the situation. “Yes,” he ground out.

Tony smiled and Peter shuffled until he was facing the screen again. There was a pre-choreographed music number with a large ensemble. Peter wasn’t sure they were watching the same movie as five minutes ago. He felt Tony pull him in close, his chin resting in Peter’s hair.

“Good.”

Peter’s voice was quiet. “Good?”

“Yeah, Pete. Good.”

He knew he’d regret asking if he didn’t like the response, but Peter Parker had never had a filter even before he could only tell the truth. “Mr Stark, do you consider me a son-figure?”

Tony didn’t hesitate, and all the warmth he could muster went into the words. “Yeah, Peter. I do.”

 

-

 

When Peter got up the next day, the first thing Tony asked when he walked into the kitchen was, “Hey, kiddo. What’s your crush’s name?”

“Uh… That’s confidential,” Peter replied.

Tony grinned at him. “I’m gonna find it out anyway, but it’s nice to know the truth thing wore off.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Oh, no way! I’ve never taken drugs before in my life! May’s cooking is great! The US military budget is not big enough! Mr Stark! I can lie again!”

Tony laughed. “Sure can, kid. You want pancakes or waffles?”

“Waffles,” Peter said, then when Tony moved, “That was a lie! I want pancakes! Mr Stark!”

“Yeah, like that’s not gonna get old real quick,” Tony muttered, moving to make the pancakes. Peter landed on the stool at the kitchen island.

“This is great,” Peter said. “I’m gonna lie so much. I’m gonna evade every question. I never realised how much I took it for granted.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Peter.”

“Mr Stark.”

“The truth thing lasted less than 24 hours, it’s not like we spent a year with it.”

“Sure, but I’m not gonna let my lying ability go to waste.”

“You’re terrible at lying, though.”

“Which is why I’m so happy to finally be able to _practice_ again!”

Overhead, music filtered into the kitchen, Tony cooking at the stove and morning sunlight streaming through the windows. Peter rambled off every lie he could think of, while Tony rolled his eyes, smiling.

“I like Flash as a person. I’ve killed a man in cold blood. I’ve gone to the moon. I didn’t totally have a crush on Black Widow at age eleven. I’ve never been arrested-”

“ _What?_ ”

“I’ve… uh-”

“ _Peter._ ”

“Oh… uh. Oh shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading lads


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